


Contemplating Hiccup

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Dragons, Gen, Introspection, Training, Vikings, Yuletide 2012, Yuletide NYR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21877921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Astrid frowned and watched as Hiccup left the arena. there was something decidedly odd about the recent behavior of their chieftain's son.
Kudos: 7





	Contemplating Hiccup

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this NYR!

Astrid frowned and watched as Hiccup left the arena. there was something decidedly odd about the recent behavior of their chieftain's son. While Astrid had been raised since birth to be a perfect Viking warrior, he seemed to, well… _not_ have been. Which was especially odd, considering that he was the chieftain’s son, and you think that would have been high on the priority list.

After all, his dad, Stoick the Vast, was a typical Viking to the bone, and all the elders agreed that he was one of the best chieftains that they had had in years. And Hiccup’s mother Frigga had been a goddess among women. As strong as her husband and twice as wicked, she had bravely fought against the dragon menace for years before she was killed.

It was, therefore, somewhat inconceivable that their son, Hiccup, could be so helplessly... well, helpless. Absurdly helpless, when it came right down to it. To the point where some whispered that trolls came and switched him out in the cradle for some other baby. It would certainly explain a lot.

At least it seemed so to Astrid. Astrid came from a long line of female warriors. All of her thirteen sisters had become amazing Viking fighters with their own crowning feats to crow about at the dinner table. The eldest, Ingrid, had become the first in her class to master the dragons in training, and she had won the honor of killing her first dragon. In fact, ten of her sisters could claim that honor, and Astrid would be number eleven. She was sure of it.

One of her sisters, Sigrid, had made drastic improvements to the catapult system, increasing its efficiency at least five-fold. Astrid hadn't quite followed all the details, but the important part was that she was making a good contribution to the clan, and to the survival of their people. And she was Astrid’s kin. She was the kind of Viking woman that Astrid had to live up to the reputation of.

This was why she trained.

Of course, her sisters had not left everything up to chance or to her own inclinations, as someone seemed to have done with Hiccup.

No, from her earliest memories, Astrid was with her sisters. They were all around her, always; showing her how to throw an ax, how to hone a knife, how to duck and dodge and roll out of the way of a burst of fire. They had her doing exercises and lifting weights and practicing with children’s shields that were too big for her. It was hard work at the time, and there were moments - at least three - what she had wanted to stop. Moments when she wondered what all the fuss was about. Moments when she wanted to just be mediocre.

And then, dragons would attack. Livestock would be taken, buildings would be destroyed, and lives would be lost. And the villagers would feast triumphantly on dragon meat for a week. Then, all of her doubts and self-pity would vanish, and Astrid would look down the feasting table at her sisters, and she would want to be just like them.

So, even when they weren't training her, she trained herself. She used even bigger shields. She put rocks in her boots so that she would be slowed down, so that she would have to become that much faster, spring that much better into a roll. She practiced with her weapons every chance she got. She borrowed her sisters' heavier weapons whenever she could, and practiced with them instead of her own, lighter, ones.

She was going to be the best girl Viking that Berk had ever seen, just like her sisters!

And that wasn’t just false bravado; Astrid was well on her way to achieving her dream. She was the only one in her age group who was even remotely competent. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were far too concerned with each other and their competition to ever have a chance against her. Fishlegs had it in the brains department, she would give him that. He was the only one, besides her, who had ever read the Book of Dragons. Astrid had rarely actually read it herself, truth be told, but her sisters had read it to her as a bedtime story every single night of her life. It was occasionally interrupted by dragon attack, but afterwards they always came home and finished.

By the age of seven she had it memorized.

So yes, while Fishlegs had read it, and could repeat stats easily enough, he had never lived with it. He had none of the physical training and strength that Astrid had, and he was easily dismissed as a candidate for winning the honor of killing their first dragon.

Then there was Snotlout. He was a braggart, and more interested in getting into Astrid's tunic than in actually slaying dragons. Astrid found him a bore and an idiot, but somehow, she couldn't convince him of that. He kept trying, and meanwhile she hoped that a dragon would accidentally singe him in training. He was no real competition, despite what he, himself, seemed to think.

And then there was Hiccup. Hiccup who until a week ago hadn't even been allowed out of the smithy during a fight! Who wasn’t even on one of the fire brigades or any other battle line! Who wasn’t even initially accepted into dragon training! Hiccup who had never even practiced with weapons or children’s shields! Who had never read the Book of Dragons! who couldn't kill a dragon if he tried!

And oh, he did try. As often as he could slip through his father's protective guard. Astrid had wondered more than once if that guard was to protect Hiccup or everyone else, and the most recent attack just seemed to reinforce his uselessness. As if any of them believed that he had actually hit a dragon during the battle, let alone a Night Fury. Please.

But then, suddenly, there Hiccup was, included in dragon training. And what was more, Hiccup was actually winning. At this rate, he would win the honor of killing the first dragon, not her.

Astrid had to get to the bottom of this.


End file.
